More intrusiveness by the left: road running minimums?

Some of my favourite joys in my 19th season running races, which include five half marathons and a marathon, are watching children run the same distances as adults.  Some of my best friends running have their children run these races.  The local running club that I am a member has age groups as young as birth to 10 years of age for age group prizes.

Herein lies the story.  Hawaii's upper chamber has a Senate Monopoly Leader, as the 2016 elections resulted in a leftist Senate Monopoly Leader and Monopoly Whip, with no opposition, owning all 25 seats.  The Left is an intrusive group demanding more government control over everything for "social justice," such as rewriting marriage laws and age of consent laws to appease the sexual liberty crowd, new government controls over light bulbs, energy policy, vehicles, appliances, and the rest to appease the green earth, educational policies to create new liberals who will be on government payroll for life, and as we now see with tragic incidents, a ban on all guns.

Owning every seat in the state legislature except for four seats in the lower chamber allowed them to put to a second reading a bill designed to impose more restrictions.  SB 2413 claims to impose a minimum age of 18 for half marathon and longer races. But a further inspection of SB2413 notes that they can ban anyone under 18 from even participating in a one mile race on public roads and requires participants to pay an entry fee.

In a state that gave us the Ironman Triathlon, and has also organised a few notable half marathons and marathons, including the JAL Honolulu Marathon in December that featured a notable figure skater and 800m runner making marathon debuts on the same weekend I ran my 14th and a Daytona 500 champion made his debut (see December article on Kiawah) at the 42,195 metre distance on the other side of the country.  (Honolulu runs on a Sunday morning at 5:30 AM;  Kiawah is on a Saturday at 8 AM, owing to state law.)

The Left noted the Honolulu Marathon and the Hapalua – Hawaii's Half Marathon allow children under the age of eighteen years to participate, and the monopoly has proposed a state law to require a minimum age of 18 years, considering a friend of mine had a daughter run a half marathon last week at 17.  For the record, I ran my first road race at 24, debuted the 10k at 28, and was 29 when I made my half marathon debut in October 2004 at the Lexington Medical Center Governor's Cup, and six weeks later made my debut doing the marathon at Kiawah Island in December 2004 for what has been an annual excursion into the marathon distance.

What does it say about the Left when they have a bill that, based on the way it is currently written, could ban those under 18 from even running 5k races?  Many 5k and 10k  races offer awards for age groups as young as under 10 years of age, and some half marathons allow trained 14-year old runners to participate.  Now Hawaii wants to impose a minimum age of 18 years for even road races at the 5k level shows the absurdity of the Left's crusade against common sense.  First they went after Christians, then they go after industry, and now they go after athletes.  This example in Hawaii shows the absurdity of the Left's war on athletes. They're working to ban boys from playing sports (Mink Education Act of 1972), and now there is a crusade against those who run.

Of 42,915 lore, and It doesn't sound right -- and churches are singing it?

Those who read this blog have seen our cases against Pope Francis and similar Protestant liberalism affiliated leadership (they are two peas in the same pod), and also have reached into the crevices of church music corruption.  Before we get to that, however, Sunday night after returning home, I had been out of town doing my annual test Saturday in a 42,195 metre challenge that took just over six hours and eight minutes (when calculated from the absurdly late start caused by traffic) and watching a Daytona 500 and Big Machine 400 winner relaxing somewhere on the island after "Big Mac" (his sponsor tags him that way) finished three hours earlier (now that means I've run a 12k with the most infamous of all Olympic athletics runners and I've run the marathon with a Daytona and Indianapolis winner in the event), which is the perfect reaction when I see people call binge watching an entire season of a premium pay television programme (six to ten episodes) in one setting as a place full of fennels that in Greek gives its name to the battle between the Greeks and Persians that the Greeks easily won.

Unfortunately, the logic of calling binge watching an entire season of shows in a setting a place full of fennels in Greece is lacking any rationale. The real story is  Greek soldiers marched from the plains back to Athens (roughly 40km) in an attempt to stop the Persians at Cape Sounion -- only to see a retreat of Persians to announce their victory.  Legend Plutarch wrote (italics) On the Glory of Athens (/italics) states that soldier ran from those fennels back to Athens, announced victory, and died, of which the story was later retold by Robert Browning through his poem "Pheidippides" that gave us the name of the Olympic, and now well known sporting event, that carries the name of those fennel plains.  How is an unhealthy habit of binge watching on the same level as running from the fennel plains to Athens?

It does not hurt that my reward for 42,195 metres of pain was a nice recital, a second time to see Renée Fleming (left), only to learn a current college student that was in front of me after the event knew Dr. LaRoche, as she knew students in the studio for college students singing there doing what I did a generation ago with the same voice teacher!

As for the other issue on church music, on the way home Sunday evening, an incident at church caught my attention for the wrong reasons.  The church had decided for both the morning (I was in a church near the city where I ran my 42,195 Sunday morning) and evening to substitute youth (morning) and adult (evening) karaoke performances by the respective choirs for church services.  The unprofessionalism of submitting to the large entertainment organisations for Christmas music was dastardly offensive to those who have worked over the years, considering how forgetful they have become in knowing the Advent season comes before Christmas, and how Big Entertainment and their Emergent colleagues have been at work hacking classic hymns and sacred songs to advance their cause.  One such case came from the classic "What Child Is This?," which we noted Easter references have been removed from hymnals, and pop singers will not sing those lyrics, even though we sing parts of the Easter motet in Händel's Messiah.  In Universal's latest Christmas "cantata" packet, which is deemed "Ready to Sing" and pushes choirs into using their karaoke accompaniment, including their featured video, the same hymn is drastically altered to fit their theme, which has the markings of Brian McLaren and other liberal leaders that change songs to fit their theme.

Here's the video that Universal offers (Courtesy Universal Music Group). Does this even sound correct, or does this fit to push Big Entertainment with the lyrics they wrote?  Those who know the song will see the mistake, but a generation in church that has only heard Big Entertainment wares with loud rock concerts will swallow it hook, line, and sinker, sadly.

Works Cited:
"Why the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and I No Longer Sing from the Same Hymn Sheet."

Giving Thanks, 5k record, and carolighting challenge

Thanksgiving Week Reflections:

There's no time for (much) turkey . . . I have to RUN! Thanksgiving Day started off with a blast . . . literally. I joined a pair of friends in Gran Amistad, Caroline Lewis-Jones (the dancer I mentioned in regards to injuries a while back), and Stephanie Nye (my partner from the 2008 Starpower Nationals-qualifying “Hand Jive”), along with Stephanie's boyfriend John, Mrs. Spurrier and daughter, and over 600 others started off Thanksgiving literally with a blast at the Boys and Girls Club of the Midlands Turkey Day Run VI at the Colonial Life Arena. This year's race was five thousand meters (unlike the 8,000 meters we ran the first five years; the other two cities didn't want police to work much on Thanksgiving, which is a shame because last year's 8k was capped at 500 on race morning; organisers extended registration to ensure this wouldn't happen this year, and 673 runners made the 5k run this year. But I did miss the three-city, two-bridge Thanksgiving 8k that made it unique. Now Ray Tanner's 12k was a three-city, two-bridge race but that's a longer distance.

By the time I challenged myself to racing my friends (they ran quickly that I was four and a half minutes behind by the time they crossed the line, I was about a half mile behind them), I knew something was going to happen, and the clock reported the truth. I had turned a time of 27:26 for the 5,000 metres, easily beating the 28:58 I had set on Memorial Day weekend in Jailbreak IV (a 5k organised by the Lexington County Sheriff's Department, start and finish in the county jail) for my fastest 5k ever. Ate little to celebrate, and worked out with Stephanie the next morning with 2 ½ hours of cardio (she did 2 ½ hours too that Friday). How did our friendship start with being paired for a Grease-inspired dance?

Governor's Carolighting. An e-mail came from the choral director from college that he wanted to hastily organise a choir because the traditional Governor's Carolighting ceremony's fate was not decided until the late minute. With no choral gigs taking place this fall I decided to take a shot at this event.

We had to practice at 2 for 90 minutes before one final practice at 5:20 before we went on at 5:45. Talk about pressure with songs most of us didn't know! Enjoyed the experience, with Händel, Mendelssohn, Leontovich, Wilhousky, and even some “African carols”. However, I was not pleased with the Gospel Choir at a college for performing to karaoke when we had two accompanists ready for the Children's Choir and the Community Choir, respectively. Why does that college choir leader think their group is better with karaoke? And don't get me started on winter songs being used instead of Christmas songs as we saw with four selections on this night. I have a friend in Australia and it's summer and people spend Christmas on the beach, and it's warmer than 90 degrees.

I have plenty of people to thank here but especially Larry and Susan Wyatt, who directed the choirs, and Camille Jones and Nathan Doman, our accompanists. Cannot say enough how this challenge was tough to do on short notice, but Raycom's Dawndy Mercer Plank (Mistress of Ceremonies) could not even hear that we were just organised in hours. ◙

Marathon curse?

What is happening at marathons this year? Authorities have stepped in the middle of three major-city marathons this year -- one in South Carolina (Myrtle Beach), one in Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh), and one in Tennessee (Nashville) -- and weather also stopped a marathon in Maryland (Washington's Birthday).

In South Carolina, as we posted earlier this year, Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon XIII presented by Chick-Fil-A (February 13) was canned eight and a half hours before a rescheduled start because of snow and ice concerns by the city after organisers attempted that morning to move back the start 30 minutes in an attempt for better weather. As reporters at channel 32 noted on their Twitter accounts later, there was snow and icy roads in the vicinity of the marathon course at what should have been setup tiime (3 AM), and the organiser mentioned they could not run on Sunday because of churches on course (proven by simply driving on the route).

In Nashville, Competitor Group, the organisers of the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series, was forced to shutter Country Music Marathon XI early because of thunderstorm concerns. Runners who had been slower than two hours by the transition point where the half-marathon course splits at 18km were forced to turn to LP Field; other runners who had run the Rosa Parks Boulevard section were told after officials made thunderstorm calls were told to turn around at the 33 km point to end their race and immediately proceed to LP Field, skipping the Shelby Park section. In each case the decision was made twofold; one for the competitors, the other was for the bands that play at 1,600 meters of the RNR marathon and half-marathon series. The cruelest irony was that Leukemia and Lymphoma Society "Team in Training" members in the Southeast who had trained for the full Myrtle Beach event only to see it go down in snow were entered in Nashville, and they were hit, some only going 21km, and others 34km of a marathon that they had entered to go the full 42,195 meters.

In Pittsburgh on May 2, a bomb scare forced officials at the Dick's Sporting Goods Marathon to suspend the event for a few minutes near the finish line. Concerned officials were nervous of another New York-style incident, so they played caution to the wind and forced a slight delay after the top runners had finished, and it went off without a hitch.

Is there a curse this year with marathons? We've had weather play parts in canning a marathon entirely and play havoc in cutting another short. Having done six and victimised by the snow, I cannot see what is next? ◙

Who's Trotting?

By Bobby Chang

With Thanksgiving being tomorrow, I'm asking how many of you are going to be Turkey Trotting tomorrow?

Will it be 1,609, 3,000, 5,000, 8,000, 10,000, 21,097.5, 42,195 meters, or in between those distances? I know I'm doing a 8,000 meter Boys and Girls Club of the Midlands Turkey Day Run.

For many, turkey trots are big benefits for charities. It reminds me of the chorus of a Chris Rice song I remember from college (and was sung by Kathy Troccoli at the 1998 South Carolina March for Life):

Carry your candle
Run to the darkness
Seek out the helpless
Deceived and poor
Hold out your candle
For all to see it
Take your candle, go light your world

-- From "Go Light Your World," Copyright 1993 Universal Music Publishing.

Think about it when you're doing a turkey trot tomorrow, as we help those less fortunate as we do a trot. There's nothing better on Thanksgiving than to be running on streets for a good cause for turkey trots. This is the fourth local trot, and my seventh overall trot. (My first turkey trot was the 2002 Knights of Columbus 5k in Charleston; Bishop Baker of the Charleston Diocese, whom I've met a few times at the March for Life, sprinkled the course as the gun fired off. I did, however, fold over the bib because of an alcohol ad, which is something that I do not tolerate.)

If you're doing a Turkey Trot, just tell us. Good healthy running to everyone on Thanksgiving.

Peachtree vs Nathan's Famous

By Bobby

Sometimes you have to wonder what happens in the wild world of Independence Day events.

A crowd estimated at 40,000 attended Coney Island's legendary Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest XCIII to watch 20 gurgitators attempt to swallow as many frankfurters in their mouths in a span of ten minutes. A million more watched ESPN to hear Paul Page and Richard Shea call the action of this contest.

Meanwhile, in Atlanta, a few thousand people (including many on the side of the hospital) were on the side of the road in Buckhead and Midtown to watchover 55,000 (including myself for the first time) run from Lenox Square Mall to Ponce de Leon Avenue (instead of Piedmont Park because of drought conditions) in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race XXXIX. Part of the coverage was on the Fox affiliate (WAGA-5) in Atlanta but that was it. It was a day for 54,500 commoners and 500 elite athletes to run the biggest running event in the country.

I wonder which one was better off -- the 40,000 to watched 20 swallow as many frankfurters in ten minutes, or the 55,000 who ran past Cardiac Hill (yes, there is a hospital near that hill) and the Olympic Mile (much of the Peachtree course on Peachtree Avenue was used for the 1996 Olympic marathon; it can be traced on Thanksgiving during The Weather Channel Atlanta Marathon and Half Marathon, which retraces much of the Olympic course).

I must say as a five-time marathon finisher, and someone who has run two major 10K's in the Southeast (Cooper River Bridge Run, Mount Pleasant to Charleston, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race) that the Peachtree was worth it. A family member told me she couldn't stand to have lunch after watching the hot eating contest on ESPN.

And oh, by the way: Bobby's time for the AJC Peachtree was 1:17:19, hand-timed because it is not scored legally. That time would easily be better than my first two Cooper River Bridge Runs in Charleston, also a 10K though flatter.